Step 3: Now pop and let them fly!

This is my version of the exploding blue bird. I was unable to make a video of the making of the balloon animal but I took loads of pictures and hopefully they will be enough along with my instructions. I have also listed a video of stuffing a balloon from you tube. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN5tq-wrCWs They use an air compressor, I used a hand pump and it was a little more difficult but totally doable. You will see that they keep the outer balloon inflated the whole time which is what you need to do if you want to keep structural integrity but since you are going to pop the outer balloon here it does not matter.

Step 1: Gathering your supplies and decorate.

You will need three (3) small light blue balloons, I used 5" balloons. One 9-11" light blue balloon as well. You will also need scissors, a chopstick, skewer (blunt end), dowel rod, or straw, and Sharpies or Galaxy markers, I used a black, yellow, and light orange Sharpies.

Now that you have your supplies it is time to start decorating your balloons. I found it easiest to partially air up my 5" balloons, give a slight twist to the bottom, holding the air in the draw the face on. Next deflate the balloons and stuff them one at a time with all of them already decorated. I drew the faces on starting with the beak. I used my daughters angry birds bandages container as a rough guide. The blue bird appears to have a simple triangle beak, and sad eyes. I did not take detailed pictures of drawing the faces but I believe I can explain it plus I will include a picture of the drawn face before coloring it in. This is a picture of the large balloon but the face is no different than the smaller balloons.

Draw the triangular beak first, with your orange marker, this was easiest for me. Next draw two round eyes leaving space between them, using black. Next draw a line slightly curved coming from the bottom of the eyes to the beak on both outside and inside, using red. (See picture for explanation on this, I am not sure how to put it into words) Now color in the orange beak and the red 'bags' under the eyes. Once it is colored in let it dry slightly before deflating. (A colored balloon will flake color when deflated.)

Step 2: Now that your balloons are decorated get to stuffin'!

The first step to stuffing the larger balloon is usually inflation but for this it is not strictly necessary although a little air in the larger balloon first is helpful. Take one of your smaller balloons and insert your stick into the nozzle. You will now slightly fold the balloon around the stick you have chosen and insert it into the larger balloon. Now you hold the smaller nozzle outside of the larger nozzle and inflate the larger balloon slightly, make sure you hold onto the small nozzle. Now it gets tricky if using a hand pump, attempting to hold the air inside the larger balloon inflate your smaller balloon to the desired size. Remember to not over inflate it, you want it to be round and the larger balloon needs to hold three smaller balloons and still be roundish. Once inflated tie your small balloon off and cut the extra nozzle off and discard. Now repeat two more times and finally tie a knot in your large balloon cutting the excess nozzle off it as well.

Now that your large balloon is stuffed draw the face on it as well.

Step 3: Now pop and let them fly!

Now that your blue bird is stuffed it is time to pit it against your pig. In the next instructable I will show how to make the pig. I took the pig and attached a small piece of tape to the back of it and stuck it on the wall. The I took a needle and wrapped duct tape around the eye so that it would not pop the balloon and gently placed it into the snout. Then you can shoot your blue bird at it or simply pop it against the needle. This was difficult to capture on camera, mine did not catch the action but I do have a video on how to shoot the balloon. You may want to make many of these or just use plain round balloons and shoot them at the pig.